Day 9 - New Boots, No Boats

When looking down, I've been increasingly aware that I started this trip with the wrong boots: old boots, from a previous hike, familar and tamed. Thought they had another journey in them, but they're asking for early retirement. So be it -- I'm lucky enough to have a sporting goods store just around the corner from our hotel/brewery in Lübbenau. These new boots will take some breaking in but I can see a bright future ahead.

Meanwhile, Deb's at the town harbor cooking up her own scheme...

Frustrated with a trail of hard pavement and the bikes that flock to it, she's hatched a brilliant plan to do the rest of the Spreewald by boat. That's what the Soreewald's about, after all! Sadly, no one-way rentals are available. So we walk on, criss-crossing the canals and dodging the bikes. It's really not so bad. Not as crowded as yesterday. 

For lunch we stop at a cute beergarden that has its own dock for boat tourists... Many establishments around here do.

Shortly thereafter we're delighted to find ourselves on a little road called Erlkönig Weg!

...but to our dismay, no one invites us to recite Erlkönig. Too bad the beergarden "Zum Erlkönig" in the sign above is closed today...

By the way, also in the signs you will

notice some towns with alternate names -- Lübbenau is "Lubnjow" for instance. The Speewald was previously home to a large Slavic population, known as Wendisch or Sorbisch, which was largely displaced by Germanic peoples but still has some cultural sway here. (We had some of their soup with lunch, if that counts.)

After little bits of forest and farmland we emerge in a burg called Burg and stock up on supplies at the Edeka. Then boldly onward, hoping for a perfect little hidden campsite in the ever-tinier clusters of trees between the fields. No luck, but we pass a youth camp with these excellent barrel-style cabins:

None of that for us though, we want to camp.

In the next town, Werben, rain hits and we boldly compromise our ideals and run to the nearest (only) civilized shelter, Zum Stern. In this bizarre astrologically-themed hotel and restaurant we find our night's food and rest. Here's the comforting view from our window: